Rote Island's police chief said the captain of the boat, a man called Yohanis from North Sulawesi, told police an Australian Customs official paid each crew member $5,000 to bring asylum seekers back to Indonesia.

A Sri Lankan asylum seeker called Kajuran told ABC News a similar story, but the claim was difficult to understand or verify.

"They picked up money. [An] Australian man, Customs, he gave money," Kajuran told the ABC in broken Bahasa Indonesia.